“Right now we have zero-tolerance. If I point my finger at you and go ‘bang,’ I can be expelled from school,” the bill’s sponsor, Greg Evers, R-Baker, has said. “You can’t legislate common sense, but we can and should legislate guidelines.”

Sponsored by Rep. Dennis Baxley, R-Ocala, on the House side, the proposal was inspired by a Maryland case where a 7-year-old boy was suspended from school for chewing his pastry into the shape of a gun.

The proposed law would prevent schools from suspending students for such actions unless a principal found it disruptive to the learning environment. Opponents worry that it strips school authorities of making crucial judgment calls.

“[The bill] attempts to give guidance to the schools’ administrators who must walk a fine line between following the law and protecting our children,” Evers said.

Evers told the Senate there was local inspiration for the bill as well.

“I do know of one instance that happened in my district, one time, within the last three months,” Evers said.

He recanted an Escambia County incident where a boy was expelled after a teacher overheard him tell a fellow student that he had a cap gun at home that resembled a picture in a book they were looking at about a Wild West show.

Sen. Bill Montford, a Tallahassee Democrat and former school superintendent, lauded the legislation Wednesday during debate about the bill.

“This is long overdue,” Montford said. “I have seen the difficult positions school administrators were put into…a lot of times school administrators had to take action when they didn’t want to.”

The National Rifle Association supports the measure.

“[School administrators] get afraid that they may not be following the law if they’re too lenient and they simply don’t use common sense or rational judgment,” the NRA’s Tallahassee lobbyist Marion Hammer said in previous interview. “They overreact in simple cases that are patently ridiculous.”

Politicians aren't the only people who wield clout in Orlando. In no particular order, here is an admittedly limited sampling of unelected power brokers in the region. They are people who make things in happen in business, the arts and in the community, and sometimes behind the scenes in politics...